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Mexico’s finance minister resigned Wednesday, after he was strongly criticized along with President Enrique Peña Nieto for inviting U.S. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump to visit Mexico.
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According to an investigation by the magazine Proceso, the invitation to the tycoon "was conceived months ago and the architect behind it was Luis Videgaray."
Both Mexican politicians were criticized for inviting Trump to speak in Mexico last week, considering Trump’s anti-Mexican racist campaign.
"While there may be important differences, the neighborhood with the U.S., friendship, our business relationship, among many other reasons, require us to have a dialogue," said Videgaray a day after the controversial meeting.
Trump met with Mexico’s president in Mexico City on August 31 and gave a joint press conference, where the construction mogul reiterated that he would build a wall on the border of both countries if he becomes president.
During his presidential campaign, Trump has repeatedly promised to build a wall on the border with Mexico in order to stop "racists and criminals" from entering the United States, even going as far as saying that he will make Mexico pay for it.
Also, in June 2015, Trump said, "When Mexico sends its people, they're not sending their best ... They're sending people that have lots of problems, and they're bringing those problems with us. They're bringing drugs. They're bringing crime. They're rapists. And some, I assume, are good people."
The announcement also comes after an economic decline of 0.3 percent in the second half of 2016 for Mexico, and a series of scandals involving Peña Nieto.
Videgaray was replaced by former Foreign Minister Jose Antonio Meade, who was in charge of Mexican diplomacy at the beginning of Peña Nieto’s government in December 2012, and served as a secretary of social development. Meade returns to the ruling PRI party after 12 years of working for the opposition.
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